FLW Tour star Bryan Thrift caught a 30-07 stringer on Saturday to win the Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division event at Santee Cooper Lakes with a 3-day total of 79-15.
“It’s really nice to get a win after the terrible start that I’d had to begin this season,” said Thrift, who earned his eighth career win in FLW competition and pushed his career earnings to more than $1.75 million. “The two poor finishes at Okeechobee were a pretty big monkey on my back. I had no idea how I’d do in this event after my practice, but it was a fun tournament and I brought in the biggest bag that I’ve ever weighed today.”
Thrift estimated that he caught 10 fish on day 1, just four on day 2 and about 20 on the final day. He junk-fished throughout the week, catching fish on a green-pumpkin Damiki Mamba jig with a Damiki Knock Out or a Zoom Super Chunk, a Damiki DC200 crankbait, an unnamed frog and a Rat-L-Trap.
“I’m pretty sure that I caught fish in all three phases of the spawn,” he said.
Full details of his winning pattern will be published soon.
Here are the totals for the Top 10 finishers:
1. Bryan Thrift: 79-15
2. Pat Fisher: 76-02
3. Glenn Browne: 71-03
4. Bradley Dortch: 70-14
5. Preston Clark: 69-02
6. Tim Malone: 61-00
7. Jay Kendrick: 57-09
8. Todd Smith: 56-09
9. Rob Digh: 52-13
10. Zack Crider: 49-15
